December 10 in Military History

The Confederate Congress admitted Kentucky as the thirteenth state of the Confederacy, recognizing the shadow government installed by pro-Confederate Kentuckians meeting in Russellville. Kentucky never actually seceded from the Union, leaving the state contested between Union and Confederate military forces throughout the war.

After marching 285 miles in 24 days from Atlanta, Sherman's 62,000 troops reached the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia, completing the March to the Sea. The city was defended by about 10,000 Confederate troops under General William Hardee. Sherman now needed to reestablish contact with the Union Navy for resupply before assaulting the city.

The Treaty of Paris was signed in the French capital, formally ending the Spanish-American War. Spain ceded the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the United States and relinquished sovereignty over Cuba. The treaty transformed the United States overnight from a continental republic into a global imperial power with possessions stretching from the Caribbean to the Western Pacific.

President Theodore Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War through the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth. The award recognized the first use of the United States as a great-power diplomatic broker and shaped American foreign policy doctrine for the twentieth century.

Japanese land-based bombers and torpedo planes sank the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse off the coast of Malaya in the South China Sea. The loss of these two capital ships, the first time major warships operating at sea and under way were sunk solely by air power, proved decisively that the age of the battleship was over. Admiral Sir Tom Phillips and 840 men were killed.

The small American garrison on Guam surrendered to a Japanese invasion force after a brief but hopeless defense. The tiny garrison of 153 Marines and 271 Navy personnel had no chance against 5,000 Japanese troops. Guam would not be liberated until the bloody fighting of July-August 1944.

Japanese land-based naval bombers sank the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse off the east coast of Malaya, the first capital ships ever sunk at sea by air attack alone while underway and maneuvering. The loss ended the age of the battleship as the measure of naval power.

The UN General Assembly, meeting in Paris, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted largely by Eleanor Roosevelt's committee in response to the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. The declaration established a global standard for human rights that would profoundly influence international law, military rules of engagement, and the conduct of warfare for decades.

Raul Alfonsin was inaugurated as President of Argentina, ending seven years of military junta rule that had collapsed after the 1982 defeat in the Falklands War. The transition launched prosecutions of junta leaders and produced doctrinal reforms that influenced civil-military relations across Latin America.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the full military defeat of the Islamic State in Iraqi territory, three and a half years after ISIS had captured Mosul and declared a caliphate. The announcement ended the major combat phase of Operation Inherent Resolve, though counterinsurgency operations against ISIS remnants continued.